THERE are probably few skills on this earth that Ann Smith Gordon - if she believed them worthy of attaining - could not master. And at 68, she seems to have done them all.

Her athletic abilities have been well documented, she runs a successful charity - the Patients Assistance League and Service (PALS) which for more than 20 years has provided free cancer care to residents - and has done almost since its inception, she leads tourist treks on behalf of the Department of Tourism, is a well-respected photographer, and, believe it or not, many years ago was the avowed champion in a fight with a 13-pound lobster, subsequently eaten.

As PALS prepares for a royal visit from the Duchess of Gloucester next month and its staff settle into its new headquarters on Point Finger Road in Paget, photographer TAMELL SIMONS and reporter HEATHER WOOD sat down to discover where the charity's president and CEO finds all her energy.

Q: Why do you feel so strongly about PALS? Why have you committed so much of your energy to its success?

A: Someone said to me once that I shouldn't expect everyone to feel as passionately about PALS as I do. And I said, "Why not?" Why not? It's an incredible, incredible organisation. It's been in existence for 23 years and I have been with them I guess, I'm in my 20th or 21st year.

Q: Why did you become involved at all?

A: I don't know. It was back in the beginning and one of the original people came into my little shop - Contours, which was next to the Police Station on Parliament Street - and said they were having a meeting that night. So I went. That was in April. Within six months I was the chairman. And I acted as chairman for 14 years in a voluntary capacity because I was running PALS out of my shop.

Q: Was it difficult to juggle a business and a support group at the same time?

A: It wasn't exactly appropriate, but it worked. It's not approporiate to have patients coming into your shop for counselling really. If they'd just been diagnosed with cancer, they were stricken. Often they would come in asking about financial help for treatments and medication, whatever, and at the same time, customers were coming in to buy bras and others were coming in to have a neckbrace or backbrace fitted.

This went on for 14 years until we decided that we had to have someone in a proper office, properly doing this all day. It was decided that it should be me because I'd been doing it all that time and I really knew the ins and outs.

Q: But you didn't move straight from there to (Point Finger Road)?

A: No. TB & Cancer kindly gave us space in their building. And the son of a patient that we had built an office for me there. We did not pay for even a grain of sand to mix the cement. He was absolutely amazing. So I had a nice little office over there and then we outgrew that space; TB & Cancer needed (it).

And then, in 1998, St. John's Ambulance Brigade offered us space in their building - which they had done for years although previously they had never offered us enough. Wherever we go we carry a lot of baggage. This time they offered us three offices and we rebuilt the shed that they have in the back for our equipment.

And then they needed another room, another office and we were bursting at the seams. We didn't have access to meeting rooms, we didn't have anywhere for counselling patients, we didn't have anywhere for family meetings.

When you went into the loo, it was crammed to the ceiling with food supplements - cases of them. I always joked that if people didn't get concussed from the heavy cases falling on their head, they'd get blown up from the toilet because of the oxygen tanks all around it. But we couldn't help it. We didn't have anywhere else to put the stuff.

Q: And so finally you gave up and said, "Let's get our own?"

A: We were so grateful to TB & Cancer for taking us in. We were so grateful to St. John's for taking us in. But for years and years, we'd been looking for somewhere of our own. I mean everywhere from back of town, to warehouses, to the most ridiculous places.

We looked and we looked and we looked (for something appropriate). And I must say I was a little bit jealous of these other people - the Red Cross, Agape House, St. John Ambulance. They all had their space, while we were still out in the cold although (TB & Cancer and St. John's) were very kind to us.

And then this property became available. We'd been holding back, but we decided that after 23 years, it was time. So we incorporated as a company, limited by guarantee, and we bought the land. I think all those doctors out looking for office space missed the boat because this was perfect.

Now we have this incredible space for all our baggage, we have our own meeting room, our nurses have desks of their own. It is a big building, but it really upsets me when people ask, "What does PALS need that big building for?"

I would like to answer that in this way. If they are, unfortunately, ever diagnosed with cancer - and I pray they're not - and if PALS looks after them, they will understand why we need this building. It's impossible for (someone to understand) just how overjoyed we are to be (here) without having seen where we were before. For us, it's just a dream come true.

Q: What's your official title at PALS?

A: When I closed my shop and became full-time, my grand title was changed from chairman to president and chief executive officer. It's the same work. Nothing changed, except that I am now paid. Although I tell you it really is difficult for me to take money from PALS, but I do have to eat and I know that if someone else was sitting in this chair they would be demanding probably a lot more.

Q: Did you have any experience in medicine before you began as a volunteer?

A: I was a registered nurse. I worked at the hospital, I did private nursing and then I worked for (various local doctors) and visiting doctors. That was a long time ago. And then my little shop, Contours, came up for sale and a friend suggested I buy the business.

It was interesting. I didn't know what a girdle was, I'd never seen one in my life, and (there I was) selling lingerie. I knew what a bra looked like at least, because I wore one. But really, the clincher for me was that we did all the medical supports. We fitted all the collars, back supports, neck braces, leg stockings and all that sort of stuff (as well as lingerie). It was a weird combination. But it worked.

Q: How old are you?

A: I was born in 1935. I'm 68 and when I look back and realise I'm able to remember things that happened 50 years ago I'm amazed.

Q: And you found time in between all that you do to became one of the island's championship tennis players?

A: I am maybe a has-been. I taught for years and the last lesson I gave was the last time I held a tennis racket. Now that's terrible. It's been at least five years. I just don't have time to arrange things. If someone called me up and said - also my knees are a little wonky - but if they rang up and said, "We've got a game, come at four o'clock or five o'clock", I'd be there. But with PALS, there's so much going on all the time.

Q: Why do you think PALS is one of Bermuda's better supported charities?

A: It's incredible. We used to be very low-key and we are now seen more out and around in the public eye. One of the things I really feel very strongly about is that a charity must be seen to be making its own effort to raise money.

It costs over $600,000 to run this operation. It's a lot of money to come out of the sky. We survive on donations. If we never got another donation from this day forward, God forbid, when the money that's in the bank now runs out, it would be the end of PALS. Finished, gone. People ask me, "What on earth would Bermuda do without PALS?" My answer to that is another question: "What would PALS do without you people that make our work possible?"

Q: How many people would you estimate that PALS has helped over the years?

A: I would say there are very few people on the island who have not been touched by this organisation in some way or another - a parent, a brother or sister, a dear friend, a cousin. There may be only one person who's been diagnosed, but there's a ripple effect.

And so there are very few people who haven't been (touched by PALS). As for patients, we've had as many as 139 patients at home on any one day. We had 135 about a month or two ago. The exact count today I don't know because it's constantly changing. But one of the things I do want to emphasise is that PALS does not care only for the terminally ill. You see the PALS van outside somebody's house, it does not mean it's time to go out and buy your funeral clothes. It does not mean they're going to die within the week.

Q: Having relied on PALS - sometimes to a great degree - how difficult is it for cancer survivors to become independent of those services?

A: After the patients have been with us for some time, you would think they would shriek "Hallelujah" to hear the doctors say, "You're clear. You don't need PALS. You're fine. Go on with your life." But they have such a wonderful bond with our nurses and the trust and friendship that develops, many of them don't want to let go of that lifeline.

And so we're forced to say, "Look, there are a lot of very sick people that do need the nurses' time and attention. You're doing well. All you have to do is pick up the telephone if you want us." For our patients, the care we provide is just as much an emotionally supportive lifeline because so much of what the nurses do is counselling.

When you have children who lose a parent, for example. That's very traumatic. Or a child with a parent that's in treatment having chemo. Those children are very affected sometimes.

Q: Do you ever find it all depressing? Dealing with people who might not make it?

A: Depressing, no. I don't say we don't have sad times. We do. We have sad times when we lose dear friends and we lose dear friends to things other than cancer. But I think I'm lucky - and probably it goes back to nursing school days - I can turn off.

I will tell myself, "I can't worry about that now. This evening, we're going out to dinner, we're going to a concert. I've done what I can do today for PALS, with PALS." But the terrible thing when you lost a patient is that there's someone else waiting for you. So you've got to keep going.

Q: Do you take the job home with you?

A: Of course. I'm always getting phone calls at home and that's fine. I don't mind that. I don't mind it at all. Sometimes the nurses ring me. Sometimes patients ring me. Sometimes patients' families ring me. And I don't mind that at all. I don't mind anybody having my telephone number to ring me at home about PALS.

Q: Do you cook or are you so busy that you find you eat out all the time?

A: I do cook. I love great food and lots of wine.

Q: Do you ever sit and watch television?

A: I do. But usually not before 9 p.m. and even then, it's usually while I'm writing (the script) for one of my presentations or reading a newspaper. I haven't read a storybook, a novel, in years.

Q: You're well known for the amazing, adventurous travels you depict in your presentations. Do you travel often?

A: You know, everybody says that I travel a lot. I have one holiday a year. And because I do these slide shows, I make a documentary out of it. We have one coming (on March 12) on my holiday in Portugal. I do a lot of research before I go so I know what pictures I want, a lot of times, what places I want to capture.

And I know what I want to write for my script. I'm thinking about that all the time and then when I come home I write the script. I could probably do it in a few months but it takes me the better part of a year because I can't work on it every day. And then sometimes I put it down for a week after which my whole train of thought is gone and I have to start again.

My holidays are not exactly everybody's idea of a holiday. But I love them. I spend my time, from morning to night, racing around getting pictures. People tell me they want to relax at the pool or lie on the beach, well I would be bored silly in less than five minutes.

I did sit at a pool in Morocco once for five minutes but that was the end of it. I couldn't stand it another second. So I was out. I have been to all these fascinating countries and I've been doing these shows for PALS since . . . I was trying to look it up the other day and still don't know.

But with my little shows, we earn almost $4,000 a night (for PALS). It's a lot of people for a $10 ticket. It's a lot of money although it's (relatively) a drop in the bucket. But pennies make pounds. I'm old enough to say that and I really mean it.

Q: And your favourite trip was . . .?

A: The most exciting and never-to-be-equalled trip was to Nepal where we did a small trek. It was one devised for the Prince of Wales so we knew it was going to be beautiful and not too tough. Well, "not too tough" almost killed us, believe me.

And then we did a river trip and that was fabulous. And then we went as far west in the country as you can go and rode elephants every day and looked for Bengal tigers and, ooh, it was just magical. And wonderful people.

Q: Does any particular adventure on the trip stand out?

A: Our tent (on that trip) was perched on the edge of a mountain. We were almost blown off that mountain. In the night came tremendous gales, torrential rain and the Sherpas were outside and you couldn't hear anything because the noise of the storm was deathly.

I shouted out to the head Sherpa: "What's happening? What are you doing? Why are you outside?" He told me they were holding (our) tent down. Thank God he did because the (next day we discovered the) dining tent - the tent we'd just come out of - was demolished.

(The Sherpas' ) tent was demolished. The kitchen tent, I can't remember if it went or not, but in the morning, after the winds subsided, there was no breakfast, there was nowhere to build a fire, there was no room to do anything. The next day we set off in the rain - I mean we were so drenched it was unbelievable - and we found out later the winds were 70 miles an hour.

Q: And your talents as a photographer, how did they become publicly recognised?

A: I don't know. My shows started back when Bermuda was celebrating our last big anniversary. I had all these slides of Bermuda and thought, "This is ridiculous, I should do something with them." So I made a slideshow but I didn't know to whom I was trying to appeal - whether I was trying to appeal to history-minded people or tourism-minded people or those somewhere in between.

I showed the slideshow to (former Director of Community & Cultural Affairs) Lowdru Robinson and a few people and they thought it was good. And then, I don't know how the Princess Hotel (became involved) but they rang me up and said they'd like for me to come evey week and give a slideshow.

I realised that show was too detailed and too long so I made a 35-minute show on all the different parishes of Bermuda and so on and I (presented it there) every week for years.

Q: Have you ever just relaxed and taken it easy or have you always had your hand in everything?

A:$> (At one period) I worked six-and-a-half days a week. I had my shop, where I worked Monday through Saturday, and then I taught tennis in the afternoon, after it had closed, as well as on Sunday mornings. And then it got to the point where I said, "I just can't do this any more. I've got to have more than half a day in a week for myself."

So I stopped teaching Sunday mornings. But I don't think work hurts anybody. When I went into nursing you were not allowed to have a day off. Now, they're almost pushed into two full days off. In those days I was doing night duty so I could dive and fish and swim during the day.

I would work seven nights a week for weeks and weeks and weeks on end - the most I did was three months without a night off - and consequently, I would flop with exhaustion and I wouldn't be able to work for a couple of weeks because I would be sick with strep throat or exhaustion or whatever. (Nurses) today, don't know how lucky they are. (Although) I do think 12 hours is too long.

Q: Do you exercise?

A: In the beginning I had my poor mother in to look after the shop on Thursday afternoons. On those afternoons, at the very least, we played tennis. Maybe we'd rush out on the boat and come back and play tennis, but usually we'd go horseback riding and then play tennis.

So we always did (so many) sports in half a day and now I don't do anything. My body is getting very lazy. (Not exercising) is very bad. We all should be doing it. And I should. I've got to get on a regime.

Q: Why do you think PALS is so respected in the community?

A: We don't ask anything of our patients. We give everything. There is no charge for the visits of the nurses. There is no charge for the use of our medical equipment. The only thing that a patient will pay for may be the food supplements, and even then, they only pay the cost price.

Whatever we have to pay to Bermuda General Agency is what they pay. And they only pay it if they have the means to pay it. If they don't have the means to pay it, they either pay a little bit of it or they pay nothing. For some people, with tubes in their tummies, without those special supplements, they can't live. They would literally starve to death.

Sometimes (patients) are penniless. They haven't been able to work because they've either had surgery or they've been away for radiation or they've been on chemo and they can't work so they don't have any money.

And it's tough. It's very tough. What's amazing is that people are so willing to give to PALS. I've seen people on tag days who will see me or one of the volunteers standing and will come with their money already out of their wallets to give; I've seen people pull up in their cars and run out just to give.

It's incredible. And every donation we received, I make a point, no matter what the size of the donation, to send a letter thanking (the donor). I think that's very important. People often ask if we've had a good year. A good year for me would mean there were no cancer patients for us to care for.

On Wednesday, March 12, under the patronage of the wife of the Governor, Lady Vereker, Ann Smith Gordon will present another audiovisual slide presentation in suppport of PALS, Portugal - Land of Enchantment, in the Mount St. Agnes School auditorium. Tickets for the event, which begins at 8 p.m., are $10 and available from PALS volunteers or the PALS office, 18 Point Finger Road. For more information, telephone 236-7527.